Colonial and Early National Period (Beginnings- 1830)
Intro
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The Colonial and Early National period is known to be the very beginning of American literature. This era was filled with many different literary influences such as Puritan poetry, The Enlightenment, Native Americans’ oral tradition, and Spanish explorers’ travel narratives. As the New World began to form, these people groups began to set the foundation of American literature. Each writing from this time period has helped form and shape American literature today.
Before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, Native Americans had already been residing there for many years. Their literary style called oral traditions is known to be the earliest form of American literature. Oral traditions are stories that are spoken aloud rather than committed to paper. In the Native American community their history was not written on paper, but retold over and over by the elders from generation to generation. There were many different genres of stories including horror, romance, and comedy. A specific genre of oral traditions were origin myths. These were stories told in the Native American community that satisfied the need to explain how life began. These myths helped explain natural landmarks, the beginning of mankind, and even the beginning of the world. These oral traditions have shaped the minds of many early Americans and got the ball rolling for American literature,
After Columbus discovered the New World, a small group of Europeans known as Puritans came to the Americas to escape the Church of England. When they arrived, they developed a type of literature called Puritan Plain Style. This type of writing was simple and to the point enabling anyone who read it to understand it. Puritans believed that all human beings existed for the glory of God. This is clearly seen in Puritan Poetry as most pieces written by Puritans were a sort of act of worship towards God and showed that God was in every part of their lives. For example, “Huswifery” by Edward Taylor was a poem that displayed the author’s admiration for God while also using Puritan Plain Style.
As more Europeans travelled to the New World, Spanish explorers began to document their travels. In Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative, “A Journey Through Texas,” Cabeza de Vaca and his crew recount their experiences with the native people of Texas. These journals reveal the native people’s religion, culture, and way of life. Travel narratives gave birth to historical literature in America.
Along with these literary influences came a new way of thinking known as the Enlightenment. John Locke introduced this movement by saying that every man has the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. This era was a movement that solely focused on logic and reason and all Enlightenment thinkers believed that everything had a rational and logical explanation behind it.
Each style of writing in the Early National Period have played a key role in the development in American literature. Without even one of these different types of writing styles, America’s literature would not be the same.
Before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World, Native Americans had already been residing there for many years. Their literary style called oral traditions is known to be the earliest form of American literature. Oral traditions are stories that are spoken aloud rather than committed to paper. In the Native American community their history was not written on paper, but retold over and over by the elders from generation to generation. There were many different genres of stories including horror, romance, and comedy. A specific genre of oral traditions were origin myths. These were stories told in the Native American community that satisfied the need to explain how life began. These myths helped explain natural landmarks, the beginning of mankind, and even the beginning of the world. These oral traditions have shaped the minds of many early Americans and got the ball rolling for American literature,
After Columbus discovered the New World, a small group of Europeans known as Puritans came to the Americas to escape the Church of England. When they arrived, they developed a type of literature called Puritan Plain Style. This type of writing was simple and to the point enabling anyone who read it to understand it. Puritans believed that all human beings existed for the glory of God. This is clearly seen in Puritan Poetry as most pieces written by Puritans were a sort of act of worship towards God and showed that God was in every part of their lives. For example, “Huswifery” by Edward Taylor was a poem that displayed the author’s admiration for God while also using Puritan Plain Style.
As more Europeans travelled to the New World, Spanish explorers began to document their travels. In Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative, “A Journey Through Texas,” Cabeza de Vaca and his crew recount their experiences with the native people of Texas. These journals reveal the native people’s religion, culture, and way of life. Travel narratives gave birth to historical literature in America.
Along with these literary influences came a new way of thinking known as the Enlightenment. John Locke introduced this movement by saying that every man has the natural rights of life, liberty, and property. This era was a movement that solely focused on logic and reason and all Enlightenment thinkers believed that everything had a rational and logical explanation behind it.
Each style of writing in the Early National Period have played a key role in the development in American literature. Without even one of these different types of writing styles, America’s literature would not be the same.
Olaudah Equiano
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Olaudah Equiano was an African sold into slavery during the slave trade. He wrote the autobiography, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” that explains his life after he was captured by slave traders and his experiences and struggles that he faced on his journey to the New World. This novel became a bestseller and was translated into many different languages. His work made his audience see slavery through an African American’s eyes and was a huge contribution to the abolitionist cause
Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was born in 1745 in the kingdom of Benin to a chief of the Ibo tribe. He was the youngest among his brothers and sisters and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father’s footsteps of being a figure in power. However, at about the age of eleven he and one of his sisters were taken from their home by a group of white men. A few days later, he was separated from his sister and continued to move farther from his home.
Around six or seven months after Equiano was enslaved, he was brought to the coast where he boarded onto a ship headed to the New World and began the journey that was widely known as the Middle Passage. According to Equiano’s autobiography, this trip was a long and horrible one that made these enslaved people want to end their lives envied those that did. He gives us images through his writing: “the shrieks of women,” and “the groans of the dying.” The slaves were kept under the deck of the ship where the stench was so foul that it suffocated people. However, Equiano was extremely blessed. Due to his young age, the slave traders on the ship allowed him to be above the ship more than others. While doing this, Equiano came to have a liking to the ocean and fond of work at sea.
After approximately six weeks, the slave ship arrived in Barbados. There, most of the slaves still alive after the journey were sold. However, Equiano was not bought. A couple of weeks later, he was shipped to Virginia where he was bought and put to work. Only a month later, he was already working for a new master named Michael Henry Pascal. Pascal was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. For the next seven years after that, Equiano became educated and had the opportunity to travel the world by ship, including the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Atlantic, and the Arctic under Pascal’s command. Pascal then sold Equiano to Captain James Duran who quickly after that sold him to a merchant Robert King.
After ten years of working as a slave, he managed to buy his freedom in 1766. Afterwards, he found work in London as a seamen where he joined the anti-slavery movement. During this time he wrote his famous autobiography because he thought sharing his own life story would be the best fight against slavery and sway the public’s opinion. Equiano married Susan Cullen in 1972. Afterwards, he promoted his book by travelling to places like Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Ireland where he gave many public speeches about the cruelty of the Slave Trade.
Equiano died on March 3, 1797. The Slave Trade was still not abolished and would not be for near another decade and slavery itself would not be stopped for another forty years. Nevertheless, Equiano’s life story changed the minds and thinking of all who read his book and was a huge contributor in the abolitionist movement.
Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was born in 1745 in the kingdom of Benin to a chief of the Ibo tribe. He was the youngest among his brothers and sisters and was expected to follow in the footsteps of his father’s footsteps of being a figure in power. However, at about the age of eleven he and one of his sisters were taken from their home by a group of white men. A few days later, he was separated from his sister and continued to move farther from his home.
Around six or seven months after Equiano was enslaved, he was brought to the coast where he boarded onto a ship headed to the New World and began the journey that was widely known as the Middle Passage. According to Equiano’s autobiography, this trip was a long and horrible one that made these enslaved people want to end their lives envied those that did. He gives us images through his writing: “the shrieks of women,” and “the groans of the dying.” The slaves were kept under the deck of the ship where the stench was so foul that it suffocated people. However, Equiano was extremely blessed. Due to his young age, the slave traders on the ship allowed him to be above the ship more than others. While doing this, Equiano came to have a liking to the ocean and fond of work at sea.
After approximately six weeks, the slave ship arrived in Barbados. There, most of the slaves still alive after the journey were sold. However, Equiano was not bought. A couple of weeks later, he was shipped to Virginia where he was bought and put to work. Only a month later, he was already working for a new master named Michael Henry Pascal. Pascal was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. For the next seven years after that, Equiano became educated and had the opportunity to travel the world by ship, including the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Atlantic, and the Arctic under Pascal’s command. Pascal then sold Equiano to Captain James Duran who quickly after that sold him to a merchant Robert King.
After ten years of working as a slave, he managed to buy his freedom in 1766. Afterwards, he found work in London as a seamen where he joined the anti-slavery movement. During this time he wrote his famous autobiography because he thought sharing his own life story would be the best fight against slavery and sway the public’s opinion. Equiano married Susan Cullen in 1972. Afterwards, he promoted his book by travelling to places like Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Ireland where he gave many public speeches about the cruelty of the Slave Trade.
Equiano died on March 3, 1797. The Slave Trade was still not abolished and would not be for near another decade and slavery itself would not be stopped for another forty years. Nevertheless, Equiano’s life story changed the minds and thinking of all who read his book and was a huge contributor in the abolitionist movement.
Audio of Equiano's Slave Narrative
Literary Themes
The overall literary theme of this time period was "building a new nation." The Native Americans had already began to build their nation and identity through their oral traditions. As the Puritans, explorers, and Enlightenment thinkers entered the New World, they all began to contribute to the development of a new country. Puritans created Puritan Plain style that made it easier for audiences of all sorts to understand different writings. European explorers began to journal about their findings and experiences in the New World which began America's historical literature. Lastly, the Enlightenment introduced a completely different way of thinking that distinguished America's way of living. Each of these groups people helped develop and build America.
Timeline
Key Authors
Onondaga Tribe- The Earth on the Turtle's Back
Modoc Tribe- When Grizzlies Walked Upright
Navajo Tribe- The Navajo Origin Legend
Susan Powers- Museum Indians
John Locke- Two Treatises of Government, Essay on Human Understanding"
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca- A Journey Through Texas
Garcia Lopez de Cardenas- Boulders Taller Than the Great Tower of Seville
Edward Taylor- Huswifery
Anne Bradstreet- To My Dear and Loving Husband
Johnathan Edwards- Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
Patrick Henry- Speech in the Virginia Convention
Benjamin Franklin- The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, Speech in the Convention
Thomas Jefferson- The Declaration of independence, The Crisis
Olaudah Equiano- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Phillis Wheatley- To His Excellency, General Washington
Thomas Paine- The American Crisis,Common Sense, The Rights of Man, Age of Reason
Learn more:
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
Feldman, Kevin, Sharon Vaughan, and Kate Kinsella. Prentice Hall Literature. Penguin ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
"People and Events: Olaudah Equiano." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano Summary." The Life of Olaudah Equiano Summary. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
Feldman, Kevin, Sharon Vaughan, and Kate Kinsella. Prentice Hall Literature. Penguin ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.
"People and Events: Olaudah Equiano." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano Summary." The Life of Olaudah Equiano Summary. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015.